Principal Data Engineer

Who We Are 

At 8th Light, we bring life to the best ideas.

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Chicago, we are a technology solutions consultancy that partners with organizations from early-stage startups to the world's largest companies. We take on hard software challenges and turn them into durable results. We build agentic products, the platforms they run on, and the engineering and design at every layer.

Our commitment to quality means we deliver solutions we’re truly proud of, while our curiosity sparks innovation and breakthrough thinking. 8th Lights thrive in an environment that champions continuous education, fueling our growth through mentorship and hands-on work. We foster an open, collaborative culture grounded in honesty that builds trust, and believe true success is measured by the outcomes we create for our clients.

If this kind of work and our kind of people energizes you, you’ve found the right place.

Who You Are

You've shown long-term repeated success delivering data platforms, typically over the course of 10+ years in software and 7+ years in data engineering, with a clear progression into technical leadership and architectural ownership. You're the person a team leans on to shape data strategy, design scalable solutions, and stay hands-on when the hard part needs solving. In your previous experience, you have:

• Owned the architecture and delivery of modern data platforms end-to-end
• Built deep expertise in Databricks and modern lakehouse architecture, including Delta Lake and Spark-based processing
• Worked at an advanced level in SQL and Python, building and optimizing large-scale data pipelines
• Worked hands-on with cloud platforms, including their data services and infrastructure design
• Applied strong data modeling, ETL/ELT patterns, and distributed data processing to real client problems
• Used orchestration tools and transformation frameworks in production
• Led technical delivery while staying hands-on when the work called for it
• Partnered directly with clients on requirements gathering, solution design, and executive communication
• Worked through ambiguity, prioritized effectively, and drove clarity in complex environments
• Worked with healthcare data such as Epic, HL7, FHIR, and claims
• Used CI/CD, DevOps practices, and infrastructure-as-code tools
• Mentored internal team members and shared what you know
• Actively sought out and given feedback

What You’ll Do At 8th Light

As a go-to data platform technologist within 8th Light, you'll take on highly visible, client-facing engagements and set the technical direction for how data gets architected and delivered. You'll be responsible for:

• Owning architecture and delivery for modern data platforms end-to-end
• Shaping client data strategy and designing scalable solutions
• Leading implementation efforts from design through production
• Partnering directly with client stakeholders, from requirements through executive updates
• Mentoring internal team members and ensuring high-quality delivery
• Working pragmatically to balance technology choices while delivering high-quality work within deadlines
• Advising clients on architecture, scalability, and platform evolution, connecting technical decisions to business outcomes
• Leading or initiating retrospectives and feedback conversations with teams and clients
• Clearly articulating and documenting outcomes and driving action items forward
• Contributing to the health of your team and 8th Light's culture by modeling our Values
• Identifying, mitigating, and resolving blockers to team progress
• Contributing to 8th Light by mentoring, leading workshops, representing us in the tech community, or supporting our hiring process

Strongly Preferred Skills

We work across many areas, and encourage anyone with the experience above to apply. We'd particularly like to hear from applicants with experience in:

• Platform engineering: building reusable data foundations and infrastructure other teams build on
• Real-time and streaming data tools such as Kafka, Kinesis, or Pub/Sub
• Delivering production agentic systems, including RAG pipelines and vector search
• MLOps
• Infrastructure as Code

How You’ll be Supported

At 8th Light, we believe our people are our greatest asset. Their growth, well-being, and success shape our future. 

Our wellness package is designed with the Whole YOU in mind and includes:

• A robust L&D program featuring unlimited access to thousands of books, courses, and expert-led training on the O'Reilly learning platform.
• Annual financial stipend and time allotment for learning & development
• Coworking support for our global team
• Flexible PTO 
• 12 weeks of new parent leave available for eligible employees

See our full list of Benefits. 

A Note on Compensation

At 8th Light, we are committed to a compensation philosophy that is transparent, fair, and also helps us attract and retain top talent in alignment with our company’s strategic growth goals and clients’ needs.

We benchmark our salaries using Geographic Structures to establish competitive pay ranges within the regions where 8th Lights live. Our pay ranges for our Principal Engineer position within our four US structures are as follows:

• Structure 1 (Tampa Metro, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin)
• RANGE: $151,535-$189,418 USD
• Structure 2 (Chicago Metro, Miami Metro, Philadelphia Metro, Raleigh Metro, Houston Metro) 
• RANGE: $159,240-$199,050 USD
• Structure 3 (Austin Metro, Boston Metro, DC Metro)
• RANGE: $169,513-$211,892 USD
• Structure 4 (Los Angeles, Seattle, New York City)
• RANGE: $176,705- $220,881 USD

Reach out to [email protected] for more relevant information about your local market.

8th Light Hubs and Geographies

As a remote-first company, 8th Light's culture is rooted in strong connections that extend across our teams, regions, and beyond client work. We are a distributed team across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, with hubs in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle. 

If you are hired into a hub, you will be a part of a team with regular rituals around co-working and community building. For team members outside of those cities, we offer access to coworking spaces to foster continued collaboration and connection across our global team. 

In most cases, our consulting engagements do not require travel.

We hope to see you apply! 

_#LI-Remote